WTF is up with all of these Shootings???

[starguard]

First some nutcase shot up some hotel in Las Vegas that left two people dead, then there was a shooting in a Shopping Mall on Portland Oregon that killed a few people, then there was a school yard shooting in CT that left several children dead, Now some loon opened fire in a California mall parking lot where over 50 shots were fired.

WTFis going on here?

..Man fires some 50 shots at Calif. mall parking lot
Associated Press – 8 hrs ago....Email0Share0
Share4Print......NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A man was arrested Saturday after firing about 50 shots in the parking lot of a Southern California shopping mall, prompting a lockdown of stores crowded with holiday shoppers.

Marcos Gurrola, 42, of Garden Grove was taken into custody by bicycle police officers patrolling around the open-air Fashion Island mall around 4:30 p.m., police spokeswoman Cathy Lowe said. She said he fired into the air and onto the ground in the parking lot near a Macy's department store.

No one was injured, but the gunfire caused panic, coming a day after a gunman killed 26 children and adults at a Connecticut elementary school, and days after a deadly mall shooting in Oregon.

The mall was crowded with holiday shoppers and the parking lot was full. Witnesses said they ran, screaming and ducking for cover.

"It's a miracle nobody got injured," said Sven Maric, who said he was celebrating his wife's birthday at a restaurant patio about 50 yards away. "The bullets had to land somewhere, and he shot so many."

Lowe says some stores voluntarily closed their doors and kept shoppers inside while police investigated.

link for more: http://news.yahoo.com/man-fires-50-shots-calif-mall-parking-lot-042034513.html

 

[Friday]

I'm planning on getting my CCW permit. No deranged nutcase is going to come into my classroom and turn my students, or me, into statistics. At least in my classroom, this ends. Here. Now.

 

[kaonashi.shinu]

I'm planning on getting my CCW permit. No deranged nutcase is going to come into my classroom and turn my students, or me, into statistics. At least in my classroom, this ends. Here. Now.

First image that came to mind:

 

[Friday]

Well, I'm more middle-aged with a few gray hairs popping thru, but yeah. That.

 

[Conchaga]

I love when white suburbanites only focus on white suburbanite shootings. There are shootings in Philly on an every-other-day basis. I hear gunfire from my bedroom window weekly.

OMG someone shot someone at a Mall! National news.
OMG some black dude shot another black dude: page 12 of the local paper.

 

[Friday]

It's not a case of white surburbanites. It's seeing photos of 20 young, innocent children whose lives were senselessly taken from them. It's working in an environment where maniacs think it's a shooting gallery full of easy victims. It's being entrusted with the safety of your students, and taking steps to ensure that safety.

It's fucking finally getting sick of the pattern and standing up and shouting "No more!"

I'd feel the same way if the shootings happened at a school in Harlem.

 

[GTC]

I doubt they'd let teachers carry firearms in the workplace. Well, any same policy maker would forbid it anyway.

I blame American culture and a lack of access to mental health care.

 

[kaonashi.shinu]

The problem is that American mental health care is very pharmaceutical based - everything is drugs, drugs, drugs. The fact that pharmaceutical companies make shitloads of money on misdiagnosed "mental cases" is the reason that proper mental health care is not given.

Britain, for example, has mental health care based around dealing with the voices in your head or behavioral tics through used of support groups and conferences. They bring in past mental patients that are successful in dealing with their 'problems,' that share their experiences and alternative ways they have dealt with them. In this way, so-called schizophrenics are able to survive without pharmaceuticals.

If people rely on pharmaceuticals to numb the psyche, then it's easy to forget or refuse to take your meds and swing to a state that you are unable to deal with because the drugs have been your only solution.

I believe it's not only the general American attitude towards guns, but also their attitude in dealing with mental health. If someone has a cardiac problem, they aren't tied down and made to take anti-coagulant medication, or have an angioplasty. They're allowed to get a second opinion. We have to stop treating mental health like they did in the 19th century, and come up with more sociology-based solutions.

Just my 2 cents, anyway.

 

[Friday]

I must admit to not knowing whether this is true at my school, GTC. Even so, if I carry in my purse, and keep both locked (which I do anyway), no one would have to know unless the opportunity arose where I'd have to use it. Then it would only be a one time thing--once it is known I carry, I wouldn't be able to keep it on campus any longer (or at least in the same spot). I know of at least one colleague who does just that.

As for mental health care, there is access. However, if the person with the problem is an adult, there is little that can be done without consent. The exception is if the person is deemed harmful to himself or others--and that person would have to be in the system somewhere for that to be noticed.

Welcome back, BTW! You were missed.

 

[Enkephalen]

They no longer require people to get medicated, let alone get involved in group therapy. The drugs have terrible side effects, and in the best of times, they don't always work or continue to work. You can only get someone committed for 72 hours for observation and then you must let them go. These people are living on the streets with no resources. This is not how we should take care of these people. So I do agree with Kanashi and that if this treatment seems to work, we could at least try it here in America.

 

[kaonashi.shinu]

That's the thing, it's the attitude toward mental healthcare that's the problem. We're quick to label a problem without getting to the root of it all, whether it be a traumatic incident, abuse as a child, or some other external factor that made a person's attitude and behaviour change in order to shield them from the painful memories.

Even healthcare workers are trained to fear those on the mental wards, to treat them as 'non-humans.' I found while I was working in hospitals that the more respect and time you gave to people labeled with a mental illness, the more willing they were to behave and interact naturally with you.

This won't change overnight, if at all. What it boils down to is the mistreatment of mental illness, the ease of access to weaponry, and the indifference of our culture to those in need.

 

[Sarek]

I have a real problem with teachers all of a sudden deciding to carry because of something like this. Getting a CCW permit in no way makes up for the decision making process that comes with using a weapon during a stressful situation. I know cops and military veterans that have frozen during a crises after receiving years of training. And yet people think attending an 8 hour class and tucking a handgun into their waist band makes them qualified to enter a shooting fray...

 

[kaonashi.shinu]

Especially when in the presence of younger children. Scary gunman comes into the class and you see your teacher pull a weapon? Or perhaps somehow a child gains access to the weapon and does harm to themselves or others?

There are so many variables to this story, and in all I don't really feel anything. I'm not sad, nor angry. I just hope that some solution would be found that would enable children, not only in the Western hemisphere or of Caucasian lineage, to go to school without the fear of mass shootings.

 

[Gagh]

They've all been aiming at you Starguard, they're just really bad shots.

 

[Ilyanna]

starguard still going to school cracks me up for some reason.

 

[Sarek]

How many times can you repeat the first grade?

 

[Friday]

I have a real problem with teachers all of a sudden deciding to carry because of something like this. Getting a CCW permit in no way makes up for the decision making process that comes with using a weapon during a stressful situation. I know cops and military veterans that have frozen during a crises after receiving years of training. And yet people think attending an 8 hour class and tucking a handgun into their waist band makes them qualified to enter a shooting fray...

Rest assured, Sarek, I am going into this with both eyes open. A good friend of mine has served in the military, is an expert with guns, takes responsible gun ownership VERY seriously, and is going to give me LESSONS after the holidays. Even before the hands on, I have homework to do regarding the proper mindset of handling a gun. He recommended this website specifically tailored to women. It has a lot of good, sensible advice:

http://www.corneredcat.com/

I've never been an idiot, and I resent you assuming that I've turned into one overnight.

Being around young children is a moot point, as I teach middle school, and next year I'm moving up to high school. I'm not stupid enough to brandish a gun in front of young children, even during a crisis.

Yes, I've thought about it long and hard. Yes, I'm going to do it.

I have a real problem with an elitist who arbitrarily decides only military/police should carry, and automatically assumes any civilian who wants to exercise her 2nd amendment rights is a brain dead alarmist.

 

[Ilyanna]

There is nothing elitist in sharing the experience that it takes a lot more than some lessons, no matter how experienced the teacher, to be able to handle a gun correctly and not overreact/freeze in an extreme situation like some lunatic drawing a weapon in a school.
I, personally, feel very uneasy at the thought of anyone carrying a gun in a classroom, especially when I think back on how many kids and teenagers goofed around with softair guns and the like a few years back.
As Sarek said, even very experienced people can fuck up a situation where they feel threatened, let alone someone whose sole reasoning for packing is a sense of fear. You need to have years of hands-on experience for certain reactions to become natural to you while still being able to think clearly, anyone practising martial arts or handling weapons of any kind will tell you so.

 

[Sarek]

I've never been an idiot, and I resent you assuming that I've turned into one overnight.

Being around young children is a moot point, as I teach middle school, and next year I'm moving up to high school. I'm not stupid enough to brandish a gun in front of young children, even during a crisis.

Yes, I've thought about it long and hard. Yes, I'm going to do it.

I have a real problem with an elitist who arbitrarily decides only military/police should carry, and automatically assumes any civilian who wants to exercise her 2nd amendment rights is a brain dead alarmist.

First off, I never called you an idiot. I made a statement based on both professional and personal experience. I HAVE over 30 years of firearms experience, 22 years of military law enforcement experience and over 10 years of civilian law enforcement experience and HAVE been in a few high risk, high stress shooting situations. And there is ZERO possibility of training someone to make the split second decisions necessary to take a life or save a life in the limited in and out training that is mandated in CCW classes at this point in time. In fact, there IS NO WAY to train someone for that scenario short of real life experiences. And a few hours of training will not even scratch the surface when it comes to the proficient use of a firearm.

Your responsibility as a teacher is to safe guard the welfare of your students. Not to take on an active shooter.

 

[Friday]

If by safeguarding my students I need to stop bullets coming their way with my own, then so be it.

To your other arguments: Yes, because no CCW permit holder ever has reacted to a crisis effectively.

Give me a break. You're talking out of your ass, simply because you need to belong to a "chosen few".